Recent fluctuations in the market are related to new developments concerning its main driver Orascom Telecom Holdings (OTH). After gaining 3.7 per cent last week on the back of a VimpelCom-OTH deal, talk of problems with OTH's Algerian activity weighed the market down earlier this week. However, EGX30 is still holding tight beyond the 6,800 points threshold. Minister of Tourism Zoheir Garana expects revenue from the sector to increase more than 17 per cent this year to reach between $12.6 billion and $13 billion, compared to $10.8 billion in 2009. "We are working a hundred times harder now than before" the crisis of 2008, Garana said. He mentioned the unexpected shocks the industry endured over the past year such as the European debt crisis and Iceland's volcanic eruption. Tourism accounts for 12.6 per cent of jobs in Egypt, according to the ministry. The Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority (EFSA), the country's non-banking financial regulator, will issue its first Islamic debt guidelines in 2011 "to help companies that want to issue sukuk [Islamic bonds]," EFSA Chairman Ziad Bahaaeddin told Bloomberg. Al-Baraka Bank Egypt ESC, a Cairo unit of Bahrain-based Islamic lender Al-Baraka Banking Group, may sell dollar-denominated sukuk in the second half of 2011. Global assets held by financial institutions that comply with Sharia law may climb to $1.6 trillion in 2012 from about $1 trillion, the Islamic Financial Services Board said in April. The development of Islamic debt in Egypt was also undermined in the 1980s and early 1990s by the collapse of investment companies such as Al-Rayan and Al-Saad, which failed after setting up Ponzi schemes that claimed to invest in Sharia- compliant assets. The market is soon set to receive a new player from the food industries sector. Egypt's fast food group Mo'men plans to sell 40 per cent of its shares in an initial public offering (IPO) in late 2012. Egypt's last IPO was that of Juhayna in June, the first since 2008. Company founder and Chairman Mohamed Mo'men told Reuters news agency he expected the company to increase its revenue to about LE1 billion in 2011 from a targeted LE750 million this year, while it plans to buy out two small companies. The IPO's value "would not be less than LE400 million." Owned by the family of the same name, Mo'men owns brands such as Pizza King and Planet Africa. It operates in Sudan, Bahrain, Libya and Egypt, and is seeking to expand into new markets in the Middle East. Group founder Mo'men said his company is interested in buying a chain of about 20 restaurants in Malaysia for about 15 million Malaysian ringgits ($4.9 million). HELIOPOLIS HOUSING: Next week, the firm will auction 109,000 square metres of land it owns in the fifth and sixth districts in Heliopolis, along with 11 land plots in Obour city, in a move aimed at gathering LE130.8 million. The company is selling the land to provide much-needed cash flows. It has closed contracts with Upper Egypt Contracting to build 12 villas in Heliopolis and the General Company for Buildings to erect seven new buildings at a total cost of LE38 million. SIXTH OF OCTOBER DEVELOPMENT & INVESTMENT (SODIC): The company is considering tapping into the Syrian market by starting two housing projects there by the end of this year. Sodic's first development in Syria will be on 500,000 square meters in addition to completing a project initiated by Damascus-based Palmyra Real Estate Development, in which Sodic bought a 50 per cent stake for $40.5 million in June. TALAAT MUSTAFA GROUP (TMG): In another episode of the Madinaty land saga, a judicial court set 9 November as the date to hear a lawsuit filed by independent lawyer Essam Ali Abdel-Halim, which challenges the Cabinet's decision to offer the Madinaty land back to TMG. The lawyer also filed another suit demanding the government cancel sales since 1998 of all state land not sold by auction. TMG's flagship development Madinaty has been mired in legal battles since a court ruled in June the contract for the sale of state land for the scheme was illegal. Egypt's Cabinet approved a plan to scrap that contract but said it would reallocate the land to the firm under the same terms based on its right to act in the national interest. EZZ STEEL: Egypt's largest steel producer has withdrawn the terms of reference booklet for new steel factory licences offered by Ministry of Trade's General Authority for Industrial Development to add two million tonnes annually. Ezz Steel is a holding company that has a controlling stake in three operating subsidiaries, namely Ezz Al-Dekheila Steel Company, Ezz Flat Steel, and Ezz Rolling Mills. On a stand-alone basis, Ezz Steel produces mainly long and rebar products with a total production capacity of one million tonnes per annum and 0.8 million tonnes of billets. Compiled by Sherine Abdel-Razek
